Qualcomm announces new Snapdragon processor to power the flagship phones of 2014

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Qualcomm has announced a new Snapdragon processor at MWC that will promise faster and better phones in the coming months.

The new processor will include several new enhancements to its predecessor and follows on from the previous Snapdragon 800 model already found in many of the flagship smartphones of 2013, like the Sony Xperia Z1 and Z1 Compact.

"We need to expand the experience smartphones are giving if we are to grow the demand," explained Enrico Salvatori, senior vice-president and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT) in Europe.

Like the Snapdragon 800 processor, the new Snapdragon 801 processor includes integrated 4G LTE Cat 4 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi for faster Wi-Fi, an improved quad core Krait 400 CPU for advanced processing performance and an Adreno 330 GPU for premium graphics, all while trying to keep battery consumption down.

Qualcomm says it has also boosted the performance of key processing engines, including the CPU, GPU, DSP, camera sensor and memory components ranging from small increments up to 30 per cent in some cases. Qualcomm says it will provide up to a 45 per cent faster camera sensor, 28 per cent better graphics, 14 per cent faster CPU, 18 per cent faster DSP and 17 per cent faster memory.

The Snapdragon 801 processor is expected to be included in phones and tablets announcing at MWC and be available by the end of April.

But Qualcomm says it is not stopping there. The company says that the demands of what people expect from their smartphone and tablets is continuing to grow.

The company says that it will also launch an LTE enabled mid-range processor for entry-level and mid-level smartphones. Qualcomm has said that there are more than 1,000 LTE devices either accepted or in design at the moment, as the new networking offering rolls out to carriers around the world.